


Secrets

by JayRenee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate universe - Mafia, M/M, Mafia AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 13:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17561000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayRenee/pseuds/JayRenee
Summary: Lee Donghyuck, first year chemistry major, finds himself getting a little too curious about what his enigmatic roommate, Mark Lee, stays out all night for.What trouble will Donghyuck get into trying to figure out the mystery of what Mark Lee is a part of?





	1. Chapter One

Waking up to his roommate slamming the front door to their apartment at 2:00 in the morning for about the thousandth time wasn’t exactly how Donghyuck wanted to wake up. Honestly, he was getting really tired of Mark’s shit.

He threw off his blankets, knowing that it was useless to try and fall asleep while Mark was still moving around, making enough noise to rival a herd of stampeding elephants. He decided he might as well try and grill Mark on where he’d been, not that Donghyuck ever actually got any answers out of his night owl of a roommate.

Mark was puttering around in their tiny kitchen when Donghyuck walked into the living room. Hyuck assumed Mark was looking for something to eat, given the way he was staring into their near empty refrigerator with disappointment the only visible emotion on his face.

“You know, if you’re going to stay out until 2 AM, you could at least stop by the grocery store at some point.” Mark’s head whipped around to look at Donghyuck, standing at the entrance to the hallway leading to their rooms with his hands on his hips.

“Hyuck.” Mark closed the door of the refrigerator, turning to look at Donghyuck fully, the surprise on his face quickly being replaced by something close to guilt. “Did I wake you? I’m sorry, I’ll be quieter next time. Promise.”

Donghyuck could feel lips involuntarily twist into a frown. “You say that every time you wake me up after being out all night, nothing ever actually changes.” He let his hands drop from his hips, turning to back to bed, giving up on getting answers tonight, deciding he was too tired for this shit, but not without one more remark for his idiotic roommate, “The day you fail to wake me up at an ungodly hour is the day I die, Mark Lee.”

He stomped his way back to his room just for good measure. He wanted Mark to feel guilty, maybe then he wouldn’t stay out so late, maybe then Donghyuck could actually get a full night’s sleep. Wouldn’t that be amazing. He was practically drooling at just the thought of it.

It’s a pity his roommate is such an insensitive idiot, he seemed so nice when Donghyuck met him. Of course, Donghyuck had made that decision the second he had seen the guy. It might have had something to do Mark’s very good-looking face (and as Donghyuck would later discover after accidentally walking in on him in the shower, a very good-looking body as well), or not. The world may never know.

Whatever prompted Donghyuck to make the decision that Mark Lee was a nice guy and would be a great roommate didn’t matter, because he was dead wrong. Well, maybe it was too harsh to way he was dead wrong about Mark being a nice guy, he wasn’t awful, and he did keep his things pretty clean, but he was the worst roommate Donghyuck could have imagine having. The man stayed out all night, coming home in the earliest hours of the morning, waking Donghyuck up eight times out of ten. It was ridiculous.

Whenever Donghyuck questioned Mark about why he was out so late and where he was, he always got the same answer. Mark was out with friends. Every. Time. The answer never changed, and Donghyuck didn’t believe it for a second. First of all, Mark never came home drunk or hungover. Ever. It could have been that he was just the designated driver, right? But he never actually said who he went out with, or what they were doing. He never had any stories to tell about drunk friends, or complaints about always being the DD. It was always just that he was out with friends, nothing more, nothing less.

This leads to the second reason Donghyuck didn’t believe Mark’s lame-ass excuse. Mark always, _always_ , came home totally stressed out. If he was out having a good time with friends, why did he come looking like he was ready to jump out the window if anyone made too loud of a noise? What kind of friends was he hanging out with if he came home acting like that?

Even tonight, as he was staring at the refrigerator, he had been tapping his foot, something that didn’t stop even when he was talking to Donghyuck, and something that Donghyuck knew meant he wound tight as spring, just ready bounce off of every wall in their tiny apartment.

While Donghyuck didn’t believe for a second that Mark spent all of his time out at night with friends, he didn’t have a clue as to what Mark did actually spend his time doing. It couldn’t have been anything very good, given the state the man came home in pretty much every night

It was a mystery what Donghyuck’s roommate did during the day, too. When they first moved in together, and were talking about what jobs they had, Mark said he worked at a cafe a few streets over. One day, Donghyuck thought it would be a good idea to drop by the cafe, say hi to Mark or something. It probably would have been, if Mark had actually worked there.

When he asked one of the workers about where Mark was, he was quickly informed that no one by the name of Mark Lee worked there, ever.

Donghyuck knew he had the right place, Mark had pulled it up on his phone when Donghyuck had asked where it was. He had the right place, Mark had just lied to him. It brings up the question though, if he supposedly spends his nights out with friends, and his days NOT working at the cafe he claimed to work at, where did he get his money?

He helped pay rent every month, and was never late. He paid for all of his own groceries, and never asked Donghyuck for any handouts. Where did he get the money to afford all that?

Oh, well, it really wasn’t that much of Donghyuck’s business anyway, as long as Mark kept paying his half of the rent and buying all of his own stuff. Besides, he had more important things to worry about, like being awake enough to tutor Jisung, one of the high schoolers he tutored as a part time job, in chemistry tomorrow morning, or rather later that morning, thanks to Mark waking him up. _Again._


	2. Chapter 2

Donghyuck had to remind himself to punch Mark Lee in the face whenever the man got home that night.

 

Donghyuck gotten barely any sleep after being woken up by his disaster of a roommate that morning. It was a blessing that Donghyuck was tutoring Jisung this morning. He was the most bearable of the high school students Donghyuck tutored. Sure, the kid was one of the ones struggling with chemistry the most, but he really was trying. It made being patient so much easier when the kids actually tried to understand the subject instead of just whining that they can’t do it.

 

Even though he was dead tired, Donghyuck was able to put on a smile for the tutoring session, although Jisung did offer to buy him a coffee, so it must not have been that believable. Overall, the session went pretty well though. They got past a particularly difficult concept for Jisung (even though Donghyuck felt like death) and the kid was all smiles and miles of energy. It was kind of nice to be around someone so peppy.

 

It didn’t change that fact that Donghyuck was totally going to punch Mark Lee in the face tonight.

 

The tutoring session may have gone fine, but Donghyuck had three classes after that, a lab and a lecture for chemistry, and calculus to finish the day off. Sitting through those classes on hardly any sleep thanks to an idiotic roommate isn’t something Donghyuck would wish on his enemies. Well, except for maybe Mark. It seemed appropriate, given that Mark is the reason Donghyuck was forced to suffer so much toady. The man needed to feel Donghyuck’s pain. 

 

Hence the plan to punch Mark Lee in his stupidly good-looking face.

 

In order to punch his roommate in the face, though, he had to actually be awake. Should he have just gone to sleep and forgotten about punching anyone? Yes. Did he? No.

 

Instead of sleeping like any responsible, sane person would, Donghyuck decided to stay up until the target of his ire got home. He didn’t just spend all that time dilly dallying though. No, he used it to study, seeing as he only understood about half of what he was supposed to have learned that day. Not that studying instead of sleeping would actually help him understand the material, but tomorrow was Saturday, which meant he had no obligations the next day, which meant he was free to stay up until his moron of a roommate got home.

 

Despite all the planning that went into Donghyuck’s evening, any thoughts he had about punching Mark in the face were thrown out the second he actually walked through the front door.

 

Donghyuck had stood up to face the door when he heard the knob jiggling, Mark’s keys having probably gotten stuck like they always do anytime someone unlocks the door. This meant he had the perfect view of Mark when he walked into their apartment. 

 

He had a perfect view of the black eye, bloody nose, and various cuts littering Mark’s face, illuminated by thecrappy floor lamp Donghyuck’s mother insisted he take when he moved out.

 

There was a moment of silence as Donghyuck felt his jaw drop, and Mark came to full stop about two steps into the apartment.

 

“What the fuck!” Donghyuck’s voice may have been a bit too loud for three o’clock in the morning, but you’ll have to excuse his bad manners for just a moment. It wasn’t everyday his roommate came home looking like he got jumped.

 

Sure, the guy stayed out late, and the kind of people you might find just a bit undesirable to be around were the most active during the time Mark was out, but this had never happened. Mark had never come home beaten up before.

 

Donghyuck didn’t really realize what he was doing, but before he knew it, he was rushing over to his stupid, beaten up roommate.

 

“Are you okay?!” Donghyuck was pretty sure he could taste the panic that coated his voice, “What happened to you? Who did this?” He was’t freaking out. He totally wasn’t. He would never freak out over Mark Lee. He was planning on punching him in the face, remember?

 

“Donghyuck, calm down.” Mark pulled Donghyuck’s hands away from his bruised and bloody face and when had those gotten there exactly?

 

“Calm down?! You expect me to calm down? Mark, look at yourself! You’re covered in blood, how am I supposed to calm down?” Donghyuck was NOT freaking out, thank you very much. He was just worried about the blood getting on the carpet. That was it. Ignoring the fact that their apartment was entirely wood floors and the nearest piece of cloth on the floor was in their bathroom, nowhere near the front door.

 

“Donghyuck,” Wow, Donghyuck didn’t think he had ever heard his name pronounced as a sigh before, ”relax, I’m fine. I just ran into the wrong people on my way home.”

 

“Ran into the wrong people? Mark, they beat the crap out of you.” How was his dummy of a roommate being so calm about this?

 

“Mark, where were tonight? What were you doing” 

 

“I was out with friends, just like I always am.” Yeah right.

 

“Bullshit.” Donghyuck was done with Mark’s cruddy excuse. “What were you actually doing? Where were you actually?”

 

A deep frown formed on Mark’s face, his eyebrows drawing together in what Donghyuck assumed to be anger, “Donghyuck, I was out with friends.” Were you really, Mark Lee?

 

“Where were your friends when you were getting the crap beaten out of you? Huh?” 

 

“They were already all home.” Mark’s voice was tight. Donghyuck knew he was pushing it. Did he stop though? Of course not. He was Lee Donghyuck, and both his stubbornness and his curiosity had taken over by this point.

 

“Were they really?” Donghyuck crossed his arms over his chest, “Or is it that you weren’t actually out with friends at all, and that’s why they weren’t there? Maybe you’re not even ever actually out with friends, maybe you’ve just been lying this whole time.”

 

“Donghyuck.” There was murder in Mark’s voice and anger in his eyes. Donghyuck had gone too far. Of course he had.

 

“Okay, nevermind.” He would concede for now, but this wasn’t over. This wouldn’t be over until Mark told him the truth.

 

“Let’s just get you cleaned up, alright? I don’t want you bleeding all over and making a mess.”

 

They headed to the bathroom, Mark leaning against the counter while Donghyuck grabbed the first aid kit they almost never used from under the sink.

 

Donghyuck gently started cleaning the blood off Mark’s face, avoiding eye contact and choosing to focus on his work. He could feel Mark staring at him though.

 

“I’m sorry if I pushed too much.” No, he wasn’t. Not really. He was going to find out what Mark was up to. “It’s just-“ He cut himself off, not knowing what he was going to say.

 

“It’s just, what?” He finally met Mark’s gaze, lowering his hands. 

 

“I just wish you would be more careful.” He broke away from Mark’s stare, busying himself with cleaning up the mess from cleaning up Mark. He didn’t want to see the other’s reaction to what he had said. 

 

“I’m gonna go to bed, good-night.” Donghyuck practically ran from the room, leaving Mark leaning against the bathroom counter in silence.

 

He was going to figure out Mark Lee was up to. It had to be bad, Donghyuck was sure of that now, after seeing Mark come home so beat up. Was this something that would happen again? 

 

Donghyuck hoped not. He didn’t think he could handle Mark coming home like again. Only because he didn’t want blood everywhere, and didn’t want to have to clean blood off of his roommate’s face. It was just because of the mess. That was it. Nothing more. It’s not because he actually cared for his stupid weirdo of a roommate. Absolutely not. 


End file.
